


Logged Out

by Anonymous



Series: Logged Out [1]
Category: Log Horizon
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Pre-Canon, F/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:34:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25959118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Lost on campus, Shiroe's path crosses with Akatsuki's in the real world before the Catastrophe/Apocalypse.
Relationships: Akatsuki/Shiroe (Log Horizon)
Series: Logged Out [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1892488
Comments: 8
Kudos: 24
Collections: anonymous





	Logged Out

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to resist writing for this pairing, but I was surprised by how few fics there were for them, and I couldn't help wanting more. I came into Log Horizon late, but I love it and it even rekindled my interest in playing WoW. 
> 
> There are a lot of parts of the anime and the light novels I love, but there are other parts that I don't enjoy as much, and so I chose to have a story where they met outside the game. That's reflected in using their real names that I got from the wiki. For a while, I just had a few lines of dialogue, and I didn't think it would go anywhere, but it managed to fumble its way to an ending, so here it is.

* * *

Kei was late. He had been able to do all his coursework so far from home, but this meeting with his professor had to be done in person, and he was really nervous about it. He couldn’t believe he’d managed to be so late. He’d thought he’d planned out his trip enough to where he should have been early, with plenty of time to spare, but he was wrong. Part of it was the delay on the train, but even after that, he’d gotten his map of the campus wrong, and he couldn’t seem to go the right way at all.

“I don’t understand. It should be here,” he muttered as he checked the map again. Even as he said it, he felt his arm bump something hard and the next thing he knew, he was on the ground. His map flew out of his hands and fluttered off in the wind.

He grimaced, pushing up only to stop in horror when he felt something soft like cloth beneath him. Wait. That didn’t mean—it wasn’t—he looked down and gulped, trying to find words as he felt himself go red.

He’d not only tripped and fell because he was distracted, he’d knocked someone over with him.

Worse still, the girl he’d plowed into was beautiful. Her deep purple eyes contrasted sharply against her pale skin, with long, black hair—she was so pretty he immediately didn’t know how to react or what to say, almost forgetting something very important.

“You’re on top of me.”

“Oh. Right. Sorry.” Kei pulled himself up and back off her. “I didn’t mean to run you over. I—I was trying to find the right way to my professor’s office. I know it’s supposed to be in this direction, but every time I think I’m close to it, I seem to have missed it again. I was checking the map while I walked, and it’s not much of an excuse, but I _am_ sorry.”

“It’s fine,” she said, standing up and dusting herself off. Kei didn’t think he was all that tall, but compared to him, she was rather short. So, she must be young, right? Oh, he was such a creep to think about her like he’d done, even if she _was_ pretty.

“I would like to make it up to you,” he said, but then he caught sight of the digital display on his watch and grimaced. “Only I am very late, and this conference was supposed to determine whether or not I got my master’s, so… um… I really have to go.”

“Very well.”

He got to his feet and looked around again, not sure where his map had gotten to, since he couldn’t see it anywhere. He grimaced, digging into his bag to look for the one he’d picked up when he got to the campus.

He couldn’t find it. His books were there, and his project, thank goodness, but not the map.

“Um, this may be a long shot, but… I don’t suppose you know where Professor Suzuki’s office is? He teaches engineering, and this should be the building, but I’ve lost the map and keep getting turned around even though this campus shouldn’t be that difficult to navigate and I thought I had planned out the route and had back up maps in case but then everything is different from the map—”

“They have moved everyone around during the construction,” she said, and he felt stupid as she did. Of course they had. “The engineering department should still be here, however, they did have to move the entrance. This way.”

He nodded, following her lead around a corner he’d thought was a dead end and was marked as one on the map.

“Is this it?” She asked, and he found himself almost wanting to hug her he was so relieved when he saw the door he needed.

“Yes, thank you.”

She nodded. “I should go. I will be late for my own class.”

He stared after her, unable to find words. She… was in college? She looked so young he hadn’t thought it possible, but if she was, then… it was a relief.

Wait. A relief? What was he thinking?

He shook his head at himself and hurried into his professor’s office.

* * *

_Forget about him,_ Shizuka told herself. _He probably thinks you’re in middle school, and if he likes that, then he’s a creep anyway._

She tried not to sigh as she flipped through her text book. She had to concentrate. She wasn’t the sort to get flustered over guys—getting frustrated with creeps and being horrified to find a middle schooler in love with her was different—so she shouldn’t care what the guy she’d met earlier thought of her. It didn’t matter. She’d probably never see him again.

And yet, when he spoke, there’d been something familiar about it, as if she knew his voice from somewhere. She knew she didn’t know any engineering students, and yet she did have this sense she knew him. It nagged at her.

His face didn’t seem that familiar, though admittedly, he _was_ cute. She’d found her attention drawn to how his hair curled when his head was down, and then when he looked at her, she’d found herself staring into eyes that she swore she knew, even if that shouldn’t be possible.

Her professor was talking, and she’d missed most of it, so she tried again to make herself pay attention.

Thinking about anyone in real life seemed pointless. The only time people took her seriously and valued what she did was in Elder Tales. They didn’t see her as some short, young kid, but as a person with skills and knowledge who could get the work done.

No, she should just stick to the game and not give him another thought.

* * *

“I really should find a way to thank her.”

The blinking chat window on his screen made him grimace, and Kei realized he’d said it aloud. He should have known he’d be too distracted to properly play tonight, but he’d wanted some stress relief after the meeting with his professor. When Akatsuki messaged him to ask if he was working on the new quest, he’d been glad, since it should keep him on task—Akatsuki was dedicated, had a single-minded focus that Kei actually really admired and envied a little. He tended to think too much.

_You seem distracted tonight. Is something wrong?_

Kei shook his head even though Akatsuki couldn’t see it. “No, nothing’s wrong. It… almost was, earlier, but someone helped me out, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I just… didn’t really get a chance to thank her properly.”

_You can try again. She may be in the same place as before if she is fulfilling her obligations to the lords of the area._

Kei found himself smiling. Akatsuki was rather into the role-playing aspect of the game and always spoke like a real ninja might, even when typing in chat. He found it kind of impressive, because he couldn’t have managed that. His awkwardness would have led to him talking like he always did—like tonight when he blurted out what he was thinking over voice chat.

“I suppose that’s worth checking,” Kei admitted. He didn’t go out much, and going back to the campus was actually kind of daunting, but he should make at least one attempt to do it, right? If he hadn’t run into her, he’d have failed his final project and with it, his entire semester. That one meeting had been worth most of his grade. “I’ll do that. Thanks, Akatsuki.”

_It was nothing. Do you wish to continue?_

“Yes.” With his mind clear of that distraction, even as he started to panic a little about going out tomorrow, he was hit with a bit of clarity. “I think I know how to get past these guys, actually. Here’s what I think we need to do…”

* * *

“You’re here.”

The words stopped Shizuka in her tracks, and she blinked as she looked up at the man from the other day. She swallowed. Was he another pervert? She was prepared to use her kendo training if necessary, but she found herself wanting to believe he wasn’t like the others, that he wasn’t here because of a sick attraction to someone who didn’t look her age.

“I can’t believe camping this area almost like a spawn point worked, and now that I say that out loud, I’m aware of how creepy it sounds, but that’s not—I just didn’t get a chance to thank you properly for your help the other day. I know I said the words, but they really aren’t enough when you consider that if I’d been even one more minute late, I’d have failed my entire semester and not gotten my degree and—” He stopped himself and bowed to her. “Thank you. I am in your debt.”

She felt herself going red, aware of others looking at them as well. “That is… None of this is necessary. I didn’t do that much.”

“No, you really did.” He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, and she could see a bit of red on his cheeks. “Um… I’ve been trying to think of what I should do to thank you if I did see you again, though I didn’t know that I would, and I haven’t really come up with anything good, but would you… um… can I buy you a coffee or something? That’s not hardly enough, but it’s a start, I guess.”

His bumbling attempt reminded her a little of Shiroe in the game the last couple days. He’d been very distracted during their quests, and she could tell something was bothering him as much as he tried to deny it. She’d offered what little advice she could, but she hadn’t thought it helped much.

She saw him watching her and grimaced. She should have answered by now.

“Um, if that’s not okay—”

“It’s fine.”

* * *

It was only well after they’d sat down with their drinks that it dawned on Kei that someone else looking at them might think this was more than just a thank you coffee. He couldn’t believe how badly he’d misjudged the situation in that respect. He hadn’t had much of a plan besides finding her and offering her some kind of thank you, and he’d given himself a week of camping the area where he met her— _like a spawn point, could you be any more lame? Or stalkerish?_ Beyond that, though, he’d had no real idea what to do, since he didn’t interact with people much, and since most of the people he knew well were online and weren’t even logging in these days, he’d had no one else to ask about it but the few fumbling attempts he’d made with Akatsuki.

“So.”

He swallowed as he looked at her. She must think he was a real idiot.

“You are an engineering student?”

He nodded, relaxing a little. “Yes. I’m working on my masters. Oh. I’m Kei Shirogane, by the way. I should have introduced myself earlier.”

“Shizuka Hanekura. I am in my third year of courses at the college and thinking of changing my major.”

Third year? That made her about maybe twenty, right? She didn’t look it, but he didn’t know that he felt comfortable mentioning it, either. Probably better not to.

“I work with CAD,” he said, and she blinked. “Um, computer assisted drafting. I usually do my coursework from home. I actually hadn’t been on campus in years until the other day. I didn’t even realize there was construction. So, in that respect, I do owe you a lot. I never would have found that entrance in time, and Professor Suzuki said he would have failed me if I’d been a minute later.”

“Then I am glad I was of assistance,” she said, and he smiled at her. She lowered her head, looking at her coffee cup.

“I’m glad you were, too,” he said, not sure what else he could say. He was so bad with people. In Elder Tales, it was a bit better, but not much. He owed a lot of their success to Kanami and her status as a force of nature, and then he had friends that were like a buffer and pretty understanding, but none of them were here now. It was just him and Hanekura, and he couldn’t think of anything else to say. “Um…”

“You called it a spawn point.”

Oh, no. He had, but… “Um…”

“It is actually very similar,” she said, and he found himself staring at her in disbelief. “You’re not one of those people who thinks girls don’t play video games, are you?”

He shook his head. “Of course not. I’ve partied with several girls before. I just… didn’t expect you to be so understanding of me using game terminology in real life.”

She looked down at her coffee again. He wondered if he’d embarrassed her by pointing out her knowledge. There were names for people like them who played video games, and some of them weren’t all that nice.

“I got invited to a closed beta recently,” he began, telling her about the new game in development he’d been asked to test. He didn’t even know why, but somehow it was easier than anything else. He’d actually been excited by some of the promised systems the game was supposed to have, so he was looking forward to seeing if they worked as they claimed.

“I was invited to test that one as well,” she said, and when she looked up at him, he found himself biting his lip. Did he ask? Did he dare? Was he really going to be that person?

“Then… maybe I’ll see you in game.”

She nodded. “Maybe.”

* * *

“Little sister’s got a boyfriend.”

“Shut up,” Shizuka hissed. Ever since she started beta testing the new game with Shirogane, her sister hadn’t let her hear the end of it, but she swore it would lead to murder if Hibiki didn’t stop soon. Still, she did find herself logging into the beta more than she did Elder Tales, and she almost always played with Kei. In Elder Tales, she played as a male assassin and didn’t use voice chat, but since she already knew her teammate in person, that was pointless in the new game.

So of course Hibiki heard Kei in voice chat and assumed he was her boyfriend.

“Kei, ignore my sister. She’s an idiot. And she’s younger than me.”

“Hmm? Sorry, I just got back from talking to my parents. I’m not even sure why that conversation was necessary, but I didn’t hear anything.”

“Good.”

“Really?”

“Yes. It’s fine.” She knew it was better if he didn’t hear her sister’s stupidity. Just because she had a friend who happened to be male didn’t make him a boyfriend. Kei was just—wait. When had she stopped thinking of him as Shirogane and started thinking of him as Kei? And did she actually just _call_ him Kei? She couldn’t do that. They weren’t that close.

“Anyway, I meant to ask you—are you at all interested in Elder Tales? Because the newest expansion is coming out in a few days, and I was going to switch over to playing it.”

She felt a bit of a pang. Since she’d started playing with Kei, he’d mentioned Elder Tales a couple times, but she’d never actually discussed with him how differently she played that game. She had a male assassin as her character and didn’t use voice chat. In this game, with Kei, she played a female character and talked to him all the time. There was no reason not to, but if she admitted that she only had male characters in Elder Tales, she’d have to tell him why, and she didn’t want to talk about that.

Kei was someone who didn’t treat her like less because she looked young. That mattered to her.

“I did want to look at it,” she finally said. “I might roll an alt.”

“Right before the expansion? They’re not adding any new classes, so you won’t be able to do any of the new content.”

“I know,” she said. “But there’s still a couple days to work on it, so I think I’ll start tomorrow.”

“Are you unhappy with your character?”

“Well…” She hadn’t been, but she couldn’t play as Akatsuki with Kei, not when she was half-convinced he was Shiroe, the enchanter she’d played with on several occasions and let think she was a boy. She knew she wasn’t the only one who played opposite of their gender, but she was still embarrassed and maybe even a little ashamed of her reasons for doing so. Kei hadn’t given her any reason to think he’d be like others were about her age.

“If you’re worried I’ll think it’s a bad class or something, I promise I won’t. I play an enchanter, and you know what people say about them, right? It’s fine no matter what your class is.”

“I like the class I chose. It… it’s more the way my character looks,” she admitted. Would he let it go now? She wanted him to, so much, but she didn’t know how to make that happen. “Um… I made a bad choice at the beginning and I got so far I didn’t want to change it, but now that there’s a new expansion, I think I will.”

“Oh,” Kei said, almost sounding disappointed. “I guess if you felt you picked the wrong racial bonus, that would make sense. I wasn’t planning on doing anything but the new content, but… I guess if you wanted… um…”

“Are you offering to power level me?”

“Oh. No. I wouldn’t do that. I know how you feel about earning your way. I just… I could roll an alt to play with you if you wanted. Or we could try the teacher system. I’ve never done it, but I could. If you wanted.”

She enjoyed playing games with Kei. She’d liked playing with Shiroe, too, and even if Kei wasn’t the same person who played Shiroe, if he was willing, she thought that she kind of wanted to do it. “Are you sure you won’t be bored? What if you lost your max level doing the teacher system?”

“It’d be worth it to play with you.”

She felt herself go completely red, unable to help the feeling that overtook her then. He wanted to play with her that much? “Really?”

“Yeah. Just let me know what your new character is, and I’ll either make an alt to go with you or use the teacher system. Sound good?”

She thought she managed a strange noise. She coughed and tried again. “Yes.”

He laughed, sounding a bit nervous. “Okay. See you in Elder Tales next time, then.”

“Okay.” Shizuka smiled, sitting there staring stupidly at the screen instead of logging out.

“Little sister’s got a boyfriend.”

Shizuka’s good mood vanished in an instant. She was going to kill Hibiki.

* * *

“The worst part about being low level is the equipment,” Shizuka grumbled, tempted to trash her latest quest reward. This sword was useless to a real assassin.

“I remember when leveling up was all I looked forward to,” Kei admitted, equipping and unequipping his “staff,” which just looked like a big, ugly stick. “I’m reminded of that time, but not in any good way. I guess I got spoiled by being level ninety and having all the gear I’ve gotten over the years.”

“You don’t have to keep leveling with me,” Shizuka said, feeling guilty about him having to suffer through this again when she could do it on her own. She was the one that wasn’t willing to play as her main with him, after all. She’d even considered buying an item to reset her character’s appearance, but it was more gold than she currently had right now in game. Shiroe had one, but she couldn’t ask for it when she couldn’t pay for it. “I’ll make it up to max eventually.”

“No, it’s fine. I’m having fun,” Kei said, and she had a hard time believing that. “Actually, I think I’d like to try the teacher system for a while if you don’t mind.”

She shook her head, belatedly remembering he couldn’t see it. “No, I don’t mind, but before we start, I’m going to go grab a leveling sword off my main. I think I used it for most of the starting area out into some of the expansions because it was better than all the quest rewards.”

“Okay, we’ll both switch. I’ll go get my character to try out the teacher system, and you get that sword. Meet up here in—Oh. I think I left my character in a zone where the call to home spell is disabled, so it may take me a bit, but I’ll meet you here in a while.”

“Sounds good.”

She logged out quickly and logged into Akatsuki, going to her bank vault to get the sword. She had just put her hands on it when she heard the clock buzz for midnight.

She went to turn it off, but it wasn’t there. She wasn’t in her room. She wasn’t in the vault. She was in an abandoned building.

In a man’s body.

* * *

While finding one friend had been a relief, Kei couldn’t help thinking about others as he and Naotsugu walked through the city. He had been playing with Shikuza a lot lately, since that day she helped him out on campus, and while most of that time was spent in another game, they’d been working on her alt since the release date for the new Elder Tales expansion was finalized.

He had no idea what her other character’s name was, and the one she’d been leveling when this all happened was offline. He wasn’t sure if that meant she wasn’t here or if she had come in on her other character.

He was still thinking about that when the rock almost hit them. Naotsugu got mad, but he recognized Akatsuki, the assassin he’d been teaming up with off and on before he met Shikuza. He was glad to find someone else he knew in game, and knowing Akatsuki’s tendency towards role-playing, he wasn’t surprised that contact was made through a rock instead of voice chat.

“I need you to sell me a potion.”

Muffled as it was, Akatsuki’s voice sounded strange, and yet something was very familiar about it.

“Your Appearance Rest Potion.”

“Wait a minute. Are you—”

“I am. Please give me your potion.”

Well, that explained a few things. He’d known Akatsuki as a quiet, serious role-player, assuming that not using voice chat was just a way of keeping character and immersion, and it still probably was, since using voice chat would have given her away immediately.

How foolish of him was it that he found himself hoping it was a specific girl behind that masculine appearance?

He shook it off. “I’ll get it for you. It’s in my bank. Hold on.”

* * *

“Funny how I used to joke about that thing having no value,” Naotsugu said as they walked back from the bank to Akatsuki’s hiding place. “People put it up on the auction house with a ridiculous price, but it never sold except to some noob who didn’t realize it was easier just to reroll than it was to pay that much for it.”

“I was going to give mine away before the new expansion,” Kei admitted. “A new friend of mine chose to level an alt for the expansion since she wasn’t happy with her character’s appearance.”

“A new girlfriend? Have you been holding out on me? You got a girlfriend and didn’t tell me?”

Kei shook his head. “It’s not like that. I mean, I know her in real life—or I did—but we mostly just played games together. We both got invites to the closed beta for another game, and I actually wasn’t going to try it, since Elder Tales has always been my focus, but since I already knew someone else who’d be in game, I did. It’s not the same by any means, the setting is very different even if it is somewhat of an Elder Tales clone. It was similar enough to be fun and different enough to be a challenge as well. Anyway… I asked her about the new Elder Tales expansion, and she said she wanted to play but needed to roll an alt, so we were actually leveling alts just before this happened.”

“Really?”

Kei nodded. “I’m fortunate, I guess. I switched over to my main to try using the teacher system with her alt, and that’s when the expansion launched and this happened.”

“Yeah, I don’t think you’d want to be here in a low level body without access to any of your stuff.”

“Exactly.”

“So… if your girlfriend’s in game somewhere, why haven’t you gone and found her?”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Kei insisted. “And… I only know the name of her alt, not her main, and her alt shows as offline. I have no way of knowing if she’s here or not, actually, since she didn’t give me her account id, just the one for her new alt.”

“Cagey. Playing hard to get, was she?”

“Is that really all you think about?” Kei asked, frustrated. He was worried about Shizuka, and the more this situation dragged on, the worse he felt about it. On the one hand, it would be better for her not to be stuck here, and he should be glad she wasn’t, but he selfishly wished he could find her here.

“I told you. There’s two kinds of guys in this world—”

“Let’s just get back to Akatsuki.”

* * *

The pain from the potion faded, and Shizuka walked out to face them. She didn’t know what Kei’s friend would say, or even what Kei would think. She’d kept this from him even when she recognized him as Shiroe. She’d suspected for a while now it was him, but she hadn’t had proof until now.

And she’d still kept her own part a secret.

“Thank you.”

“Wow! Babe city. She’s a real hottie, huh, Shiroe?”

Kei—she should get used to thinking of him as Shiroe here—nodded absently at his friend’s words, and she frowned. Was he angry? Upset? Could he possibly even… not recognize her? She swallowed and prepared herself to apologize when he took a step closer to her.

“Shizuka. I’m glad you’re here.”

“Me, too, Kei.”


End file.
